Job Openings Senior Release Engineer

About the job Senior Release Engineer

Job Title: Senior Release Engineer

Location: Colombo, Sri Lanka / Muscat, Oman

Experience Required: 6+ Years

Job Summary:

We are seeking a Senio Release Engineer to oversee and manage the end-to-end release lifecycle for our software products. This role requires a strategic thinker who can plan, coordinate, monitor, and control all aspects of software releases, ensuring smooth deployments with minimal disruptions. The ideal candidate will work closely with development, QA, DevOps, product, and operations teams to align releases with business objectives, improve efficiency, and mitigate risks. Additionally, you will analyze post-release outcomes to continuously improve future releases.

Key Responsibilities:

1. Release Planning & Coordination

  • Define and manage the overall release roadmap and strategy in alignment with business objectives.
  • Plan release schedules, considering dependencies, risks, and go-to-market timelines.
  • Collaborate with development, QA, DevOps, and business teams to align on release readiness and priorities.
  • Facilitate release planning meetings and ensure all teams are aligned on deliverables.

2. Release Execution & Management

  • Own and manage the end-to-end release process from development to production deployment.
  • Ensure all pre-release checkpoints, testing, and validation are met before deployment.
  • Work with DevOps and Infrastructure teams to ensure smooth CI/CD pipelines and automated deployment processes.
  • Monitor releases in real-time, addressing any issues or failures promptly.

3. Monitoring, Risk Control & Incident Management

  • Define and track release KPIs (e.g., deployment success rate, rollback frequency, defect leakage).
  • Identify risks and bottlenecks early in the release cycle and create mitigation plans.
  • Implement release governance, ensuring compliance with security, audit, and operational standards.
  • Maintain a rollback and contingency plan in case of failures.

4. Post-Release Outcome & Performance Analysis

  • Conduct post-release reviews (retrospectives) to assess the effectiveness of each release.
  • Gather feedback from stakeholders, end-users, and support teams to measure release success.
  • Analyze post-release incident reports, identifying areas of improvement.
  • Track key post-release metrics such as:
  • Defect rate (number of bugs reported post-release).
  • Production stability (uptime, performance impact).
  • Customer impact (feedback, complaints, or issues raised).
  • MTTR (Mean Time to Resolve) for post-release issues.
  • Recommend process improvements based on data-driven insights.

5. Process Improvement & Automation

  • Continuously assess and improve release processes, reducing cycle time and increasing efficiency.
  • Work with DevOps teams to implement best practices in release automation, CI/CD, and deployment strategies.
  • Drive post-release retrospectives, capturing lessons learned for continuous improvement.

6. Communication & Stakeholder Management

  • Act as the single point of contact for all release-related activities, ensuring clear communication across teams.
  • Provide regular updates on release status, risks, and mitigation strategies to leadership and stakeholders.
  • Manage and coordinate go/no-go decisions before major releases.
  • Ensure proper documentation of all release processes, notes, and reports.

Qualifications and Skills:

Education:

  • Bachelors or Masters degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or a related field.

Experience:

  • 6+ years of experience in release management, software delivery, or DevOps.
  • Proven experience managing enterprise-scale software releases with multiple dependencies.

Technical & Process Skills:

  • Strong understanding of release management frameworks, SDLC, and Agile methodologies.
  • Hands-on experience with CI/CD tools (e.g., Jenkins, GitLab CI/CD, Azure DevOps, Bamboo).
  • Knowledge of version control and branching strategies using Git, Bitbucket, or similar tools.
  • Familiarity with IT service management (ITSM) tools like ServiceNow, Jira, or Rally.
  • Experience with monitoring tools (e.g., Splunk, Grafana, Prometheus) to track release performance.
  • Understanding of cloud platforms like AWS, Azure, or GCP is a plus.

Soft Skills & Leadership:

  • Excellent problem-solving and decision-making skills.
  • Strong stakeholder management abilities, working across multiple teams.
  • Ability to handle high-pressure situations and coordinate multiple releases simultaneously.
  • Effective communication and documentation skills.

Preferred Qualifications:

  • Certifications:
  • ITIL Foundation Certification (Release, Control, and Validation).
  • SAFe Release Train Engineer (RTE) Certification.
  • AWS/GCP/Azure Cloud Certification (Preferred).
  • Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA) (Preferred).
  • Tools & Technologies:
  • Strong exposure to release orchestration tools (e.g., Harness, Octopus Deploy, Spinnaker).
  • Experience with containerization (Docker, Kubernetes).
  • Hands-on knowledge of SRE and monitoring tools (New Relic, Datadog)